William eandel



a To all whom it may concern:

UNITE -1 WILLIAM: RAn DnL, on TnoY, nnw YonK, ASSIGNOB on onnnritn on a111s RIGHT, TO JOHN GIPPERLEY, JOHN o. oonnann THEODORE I A N a E;nasnntrnastr, onsAMn PLACE.

lMPROV E MEtl TflN BUT-:TONH0LE"ATTACHMENTS,FOR SEWING-MACHINES. I

Specification forming part of Letters: Patent No. 192,008, datedllnnelz, 1877; application filed "January 2, 1877.

Be it known that I, WILLIAM RANDEL, of Troy, in the county of Rensselaerand State of New York, have invented a new and usefulButtonHoleAttaehment for Sewing-Machines, of which the following is afull and exact description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, making a part of this specificatiomin which a Figure 1 is aplan' view, Fig.2 a front elevation, Fig. 3 a plan view of part of thebottom plate, havinga portion of it removed to show the 'movingmechanism "Figs. 4 and 5,

plan views of the under sideof the vibrating arm containing the feedingdevice; and Fig. 6 an enlarged and detached view of the reversiblefeed-motion.

The object of my invention is to produce a button-hole attachment thatcan be applied to any ordinary sewing-machine, by means of which thebutton-hole will be perfectly stitched on each of its edges, thematerial being carried 7 to the needle by means of an automatic feed ingdevice, that can be adjusted to suit the character of the work uponwhich the buttonholes are made; i A y As shown in the drawings, A is thebottom plate, to which the several principal parts'of my invention areconnected, and which is'intended to be substituted for the ordinaryclothplate of some kinds of sewing-machines,while in others it can beattached directly to the bed of the machine, the mode of attachmentbeing dependent upon the style of machine upon which it is used. B is abent vibrating arm, pivoted to the plate A bymeans of the screw 11!.'Itsrecessed arm'B is made hollow on its under side, for the purpose ofcontaining the feedin g device 5 C, a shit'tin g guide-bar, placedwithin the rccesseda'rm B, and provided witha groove, 0 and a cross-bar,0 the latter passing through openings formed in the sides of therecessed arm, maintaining the guide-bar O in perfect line during itschanges of position, as hereinafter described. One of the arms of thecross-bar c 'is provided with a notch, into which the pawl D engages.This pawl is pivoted to the vibrating arm by the ing arm by the stud 7Lsprin'gI, which engages in the cross-bar 0 low it to vibrate thereon.

ably make with its back edge formed into an studs 61, and is held in thenotch of the cross bar a by the springd A rod, E, is attached to thepawl D, and is provided with a stop, F, having an arm, f, projectingsidewise therefrom, and which is secured to and rendered adjustable uponits rod by means of the setscrew G,the head of which projects beyond theside of the vibratingarm. A cross-pin, e, inserted inthe rod E, servesas a check to prevent the pawl D from being raised too far. The outerend of the cross-bar c is cut away, so as topresent a beveled surface,against which, the spiral face h of the lever H bears, for the purposeof moving the guide-bar O inward. The lever H is pivoted to the vibrat-By means of the of the slide exposed to receive the pressure ofthefriction-spring K, which is secured to the cross-bar c by the screw70, the function of which will be hereinafter described. The feedingdevice is connectedto the clamp-plate by means of the rack L, which ispivoted to the end of the slide j by the stud Z, so as to al- This rackI preferobtuse knife-edge, and for the purpose of holding it (the rack)in gear with its pinion, and to allow the pivoted end of the rack tochange its position as required, I place a bearingpiece, M, with apointed end, m, made to'iit the back OflthG rack, arranged directly opposite the center of the pinion of the feeding device. By this means avibrating movement is afforded to the rack Lwithout any danger 0 is aratchet-wheel, secured to the spindle a. P is an arm, having an .eye orhub surrouiidin g the spindle u, but unconnected therewith, so thateither may be moved independently of the other. Q, is another arm,placed between the pinion N and arm P. It has an elongated eye, throughwhich the spindle a passes, so as to allow of the eye being shiftedsidewise, in the manner hereinafterset forth.

ing side of the eyeof the arm Q in such manner that as theguide-bar ismoved a corre spondi'ng'movement of the eye of the arm Q occurs. This,as will readily be seen, forces the double pawl B into position, so thatits proper point will bebrough-t into contact with the teeth of theratchet-wheel O. T is a slotted arm, pivoted to,the arm 13 by the studt. 1t

has an opening, t which engages upon the stud plot the arm P, for thepurpose ofcommunicating motion to the feeding device, in the mannerhereinafter described. U is abrake lever, pivoted to the arm B by thestud u,

and so arranged that, upon the completion of the button-hole, the hub ofthe rack L is broughtzinto contact with the beveled end of the lever,thereby causing a pin in the other end of the lever to press against theside of the eye of the arm Q, forcing the double pawl into a neutralposition, as shown in Fig. 5, sov

that neither point ofit will engage in the teeth of the ratchet-wheel,and entirely stopping the operation of the feed. V is a slidingstoppiece, having a handle, '0, for operating it, projecting from thearm B .By means of this stop-piece, as indicated by the dotted lines inFig. 5, the double pawl B may be thrown into its neutral position at anymoment, and the feed mechanism thereby stopped. When in this position,the slide j may be moved in either direction by turning the pinion N-bymeans of the head 0?. The clamping device consists of the elamp'plate J,having .an arm,

W, provided with a socket, 10 carrying a spring presser-foot, 20 havingan open frame, 20, provided with teeth on its under side, and fittinginto an opening formed in the clamp.- plate. The material to be operatedon is inserted in the clamping device by raising the presser-foot, andpassing the goods between it and the clamp-plate. \Vhen arranged inproper position the presser-foot firmly clamps the material, and retainsit until it is removed therefrom.

It is obvious that the operation of my presser-foot differsmateriallyfrom the presser-foot commonly used upon sewing-machines, forthe reason that in my device it holds the material securely, and carriesit during all its changes .cated to the arm P of the feeding device.

of direction, while the ordinary presser-foot, which simply holds thematerialon the ma-v chine in proper condition to be acted upon by thefeedand for the action of the needle, permits the material to move underit.

X is a cam, secured to the shaft w, and provided with suitable grooves,for imparting motion to the arm Y, which is pivoted by the stud y to theunderside of the plate A, a portion of which, in Fig. 3 of the drawing,is broken away to show the parts X and Y. The arm Y has a slottedopening, 3 for the purpose of receiving and adjusting the screw stud bwhich is secured thereto, and passes through the slotted opening b ofthe vibrating arm B,

thereby forming a connection between the two arms, so that the motion ofthe arm T is trans mitted thereby to the arm B. Z is an adj ustingscrew, fixed to the bottom plate A, for adjusting i the position of thesliding'block z in the slotted dopeningof the'bottom plate, so as toregulate the stitch to be made. provided with a pivoted stud, 2 withwhich the slot of the. arm T engages, the relativeposition ofthe arm tothe stud being indicated by the dotted lines on Fig. 3.

The operation of my invention is as follows p The sliding block 2, is

The material being clamped in the proper p0 sition in the clampingdevice, and the requisite motion being given to the cam X, (which shouldbe secured to the driving-shaft of the sewing-machine which imparts avibratory motion to thearms Y and B ment of the arm B the pivoted end ofthe arm T is carried back and forth with it the stud Bythe movez actingas a pivotal point, gives to the arm T an .oscillatory motion, which iscommuniy moving the guide-bar C, by means of the lever H, into theposition shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings, one of the springs S forcesthe eye of the arm Q in the direction the guide-bar is moved. Thiscauses the arm Q to turn upon its pivot q, whereby the position of thedouble pawl is changed so as to bring one of its points to engage withthe teeth of the ratchet-Wheel 50, as shown in Fig. 4. By the continuedvibrations of the arm 1, by the means before stated, an intermittentmotion is imparted to the pinion N, which is communicated to theclamping device through the rack L and its attached parts; thereby thefeeding of the material to the action of the needle of the sewing-machine in the proper direction is ett'ected. The pressure of thefriction-spring K upon the slide jprevents the pawl R from giving aretrograde motion to the ratchet-wheel 0 during the return-strokes ofthe pawl, the springs S yielding sufficiently at such times to allow theI point of the pawl to passfreely backward over thepoints of the teethof the ratchet-wheel. When the stitching is completed on one side of thebutton-hole, one of the ears j, by engaging with-the arm f of the stopF, secured to the rod E, carries the pawl I) out of its notch in thecross-bar c whereupon the spring I forces the gnidebar O into theposition V l92,008 a 3 shown in Fig. 5, shifting the position of theclamping device'sidewise, so as to bring the unfinishedfside of thebutton-hole under the line of thej'needle, at the same time the arm Qand pawl R are forced by one of the springs S into the position shown inFig. 6, by which the direction of the feed is changed, and the materialis fed so as to stitch the other side of the button-holeuntil the hub ofthe rack L strikes the beveled end of the brake-lever U and forces thepawl B into its neutral posi tion, as hereinbefore described,therebythrowand at adistance from its edges, which distance may be varied byadjusting the position of the studs b in the slotof the arm Y,wherebythe movement of the arm B can be increased or diminished.

I claim as my invention a 1. A sewingmachine button hole attachment,consisting of a vibrating arm, B,provided with the button-hole clamp,and with automatic reversible feeding mechanism, and withautomaliclaterally-shifting mechanisnnwhere by the forward'feed on oneside, the switching over to the other side, and the reverse feed on theother side of the button-hole is effected by the vibrations of said armB, as setv forth.

2. The combination of the plate A, provided with a stud, 2 with thevibrating arm B and slotted arm T, for the purpose of imparting motionto the feeding device, in the manner herein specified.

3. The combination of the guide-bar 0, pro vided with the cross-bar cspring-pawl D, and

lever H, with the clamping device herein described, for the purpose setforth.

4. The feeding device herein described, consisting of the combination ofthe rack L, pin- .-ion'N, ratch'et wheel 0, arms P and Q, double pawl B,and springs S, as and for the purpose '5. The combination of theguide-bar O, slide 9" provided with projections j with the springpawl D,rod E, adjustable stop F, and spring I, as and for the purpose hereinspecified.

6. The combination, with the adjustingscrew Z, of the sliding block 2,held laterally in afixed position in the bottom plate A, stud 2 andslotted arm '1, as and for the purpose set forth. i

7. Theco'mbination, with the slide j and brake-lever U, of the arm Qandpawl It, as and for the purpose specified. f V 8."lhe combination of thesliding clampplate with mechanism, substantiallyas described, forautomatically changing the position of said clamp laterally, andmechanism, substantially as described, for automatically reversing themotion of saidclamp laterally,

whereby the material is so fed with. relation to the needle thatthe'buttonhole is stitched on both sides, as set forth.

WILLIAM RANDEL.

Witnesses:

HARVEY H.-SWAIN, JAMES A. CARR.

